Op Shop Tour (with Elbowskin), on a bus, 14th April

The bus rumbles like a tank.
I hand out names
like uniforms for the soldiers:
Leaf Blower
Smartarse Mum
Girl Boys
Manface
Beavis and Butthead - The Loud Edition
Batman
Laughless
Cousin Elizabeth
Sing-y
Shut-Out/Shut-In
Cheery Old Lady
Soft Toy.

There are songs,
the road jolts extra strums
on the guitar.
The bus rumbles like a combie.


Op Shop Tour on the MICF website
Elbowskin on the MICF website

Last Tuesday Society, Hi Fi (Festival Club), 13th April

It's a classic Josie Long moment.
She comes on stage
stands behind the mic
tugs her skirt.


Josie Long on the MICF website
Festival Club on the MICF website

Occult Comedian, Council Chambers, 14th April

This metalhead boy is elegant, sexy
in heels.
All the girls reassess
their sexuality,
conclude that they are straight
with a shoe fetish.


Andrew O'Neill on the MICF website

Silent Disco, Hi Fi, 2nd April

He's dancing
to the Barry White channel,
she's tuned in
to the Beastie Boys.

Songs From the 86 Tram, Acacia Room, 28th March

ting-t-ting-tin-ting:
like a tram bell warning off
everything in its path,
there rings
my old groupie crush.


The Bedroom Philosopher online

Mathew Kenneally Flips the Bird at the Finger Pointers, Acacia Room, 28th March

It's much harder to work
a sobernight crowd
when you've let your tech jaundice you
with yellow light
and recycled jokes
from last year.


Kenneally online

Fear of a Brown Planet Returns, Council Chambers, 26th Mar

Mid-show
they joke about the bad review
that called them "Indian racists"
but got their nationalities wrong.

Post-show I read the review:
her desperate clutch for academic structure;
her whine
that the show is not universal,
that there aren't any jokes
for white people.

But this blue-eyed,
blond-in-the-sun,
well-entertained whitey
disagrees.


Fear of a Brown Planet Returns online
Penelope Broadbent's review